Although he plans to return to college this fall to study advertising, he is working part-time at the Downtown Athletic Club, where he also works out.

Playgirl "discovered" Mr. Ingram (6-1 1/2 , 190 pounds) last year when one of his friends sent in a photograph of him for the "Real Men" section of the magazine. Last November, the magazine hired him to pose for a photo session in a fantasy suite in a hotel near Philadelphia.

"We posed Rob in a rugged-looking cabin environment, and in a Jacuzzi, and against a fireplace. It's very natural-looking," says Playgirl editor-in-chief Charmian Carl.

"Rob's very, very good-looking, with that unusual combination of blue eyes and dark hair. Like the other men we feature, Rob looks intelligent. He also knows how to look at the camera, which comes across as knowing how to look in a woman's eyes. And he knows how to express his warmth. Warm is very important."

Mr. Ingram, whose favorite pastime is "moshing" (a form of slam-dancing) at Hammerjacks, says the Playgirl assignment was his first modeling job. He accepted it on a whim rather than for the fortune it might bring.

Which was a good thing: He received all of $600 -- despite that unusual dark-hair/blue-eyes combo.

Playgirl managing editor Judy Cole will not discuss what the magazine pays its models.

"Playboy and Penthouse pay their models a lot, a lot, a lot more than other magazines," she says. "We pay comparably to the other men's magazines. But this is definitely one of the few places where women do actually make more money than men. And we're trying to change that."

Reviewing the assignment, Mr. Ingram remembers few hazards beyond the fat-filled meal he was provided. "I'm concerned about what I eat," he says. "No red meat, nothing fried.

"The hardest part was the actual shooting. It was the taking of pictures with my clothes off, knowing that it would be all over the place." (The 21-year-old magazine has a readership of about 1 million.)

And his thoughts now?

"This is, like, amusing to me," he says. "A lot of my friends have been giving me a hard time."